The Art of Self-Rituals
Experience the transformative power of mindfully performed self-care rituals, with exclusive tips from Ryoko Hori, Co-Founder of RYOKO Senses Salon.
Ryoko, nice to meet you! Tell our community a little bit about yourself…
My name is Ryoko, I’m a therapist and perfumer, born and raised in Japan. With my partner, Daniel, I’m running ‘RYOKO Senses Salon’ in Berlin. It’s a place for wellbeing and sensory exploration where we celebrate the purifying power of self-care rituals, the healing strengths of nature, and the skill of craftsmanship; we carefully curate various handmade objects, ceramics, scent related items, natural incenses and more.
What’s your philosophy on self-care?
Self-care is about taking time and working on yourself from outside to inside, and from your body to your mind. The aim is to harmonize and balance yourself and your surroundings without ego.
How do self-rituals spark a sense of new awakening?
Self-rituals are about understanding yourself. The mindfulness is essential. Once your mind is there, you can celebrate a simple ‘action’. This opens you up, sharpens your senses, improves your own immunity, makes you rich as you can appreciate more ‘banal’ things.
Igniting an inner glow: What’s your go-to ritual?
Meditation. You don’t need anything, whenever and wherever you are, you can just sit down. I think ‘doing nothing’ is the most important thing in meditation — the physical standstill is fundamental. I also like burning incense. It cleanses, makes you focused and open, and refreshes your mind.
What are the benefits of the POW-WOW box we raffle off?
The word ‘perfume’ originates from the Latin word ‘per-fumum’, meaning ‘through smoke.’ Ancient civilizations around the world were fascinated by the healing powers of natural incense and used them for their therapeutic or spiritual benefits, or pure aromatic pleasure. The smoke produced by burning these powerful plants is a sacred source of good energy. These smudges are traditionally used by North and South American indigenous tribes in rituals; to cleanse, heal and balance rooms, spaces, objects or people.
Your top 3 Instagram feeds for inspiration?
My inspirations rather come from my inside world.
What’s one thing you cannot live without?
Drinking tea, especially Japanese green tea such as hojicha and genmaicha. I love the products by Ippodo Tea Co. in Kyoto, which we also offer at our shop. When I drink tea by myself, it’s a sort of meditation — I activate all of my senses and enjoy the color of the tea, its smell, the sound of pouring it, and the taste. When I drink it with friends, it’s about sharing the moment. Tea has everything.
What are three easy ways to connect body and mind?
Mediation, breathing technique, and burning incense.
Name three things you could speak about for more than an hour…
I’m not a talkative person; actually, I have been getting less and less talkative since I started working as a remedial massage therapist. Verbal languages are not that important for me as I can rather enjoy and listen more and more to the silent voices — of the body, nature, my dog, my inner inspirations, but also of people’s thoughts. These can be spoken by their energies and expressions, actions and so on. They are authentic and more honest.
How can the power of nature heal us?
Imagine a forest: all trees have roots and are connected to other trees through their roots. They exchange nutrients, energies and information, and help each other to survive. We are also a part of nature. Our body, mind, and energy can also be recharged by connecting with nature.
A natural reset for body and mind is…
A bath. If possible, a hot spring is the best for your skin, hair, body systems and mental condition! A cleansing through smoke of natural incenses, herbal tea/ingestion, and skin application is also a powerful and efficient method.
Explain the art of natural scent to us…
I don’t believe in synthetics and try to avoid them. Natural scents — especially essential oils extracted from plants, flowers, seeds, and roots — have the ability to heal us. Our sense of smell is intuitive and illogical: It’s often underdeveloped due to our modern society, dominated by visuals. But ‘underdeveloped’ in other words is having the ability to tap into something on a deeper level — like rediscovering and reconnecting to your original self. In this society, it’s important to be yourself, which brings less social pressure and stress, but also offers respect to the others; for a better life and a better world. Personally, I have many favorites but I like vetiver. It has a yin energy, highly sedative root which grounds you and relieves insomnia and mental exhaustion. It deepens your connection to nature and brings self-awareness. A great gift from nature to incorporate in your selfcare rituals.
Your definition of modern luxury?
In our modern society, we can get so many things, even longevity. However, it is the high-speed world with too much information on the media that makes us so busy; in Japanese ‘busy’ is written ‘death of heart’. I think luxury is about time and attention. We are rich when we give ourselves these two treasures.
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